I have some questions about overclocking. 1. What is the max safe core voltage for a Q6600 on air cooling? 2.how do i know whether the core voltage for the CPU is too much for it? Is there some kind of an alarm or warning? 3. Is it true that the lifetime of a CPU gets reduced when its overclocked? Is it only the CPU or will other parts also reduce their lifetime? How many years (approx) will a Q6600 run with stock speeds? How many years (approx) will a Q6600 run after overclocked between 3.5 - 4.5 Ghz? 4. Can someone give me a good link to overclocking DDR3 RAM? (i found some guides but they are for old RAMs such as DDR) 5. Is it necessary to increase MCH\ICH voltages when overclocking? If so how do i know when to raise them? 6. Will any programmes or games give problems when they are run on an overclocked PC? 7. I have heard some ppl saying that when a Q6600 is overclocked beyond 3.5, 3.6 Ghz the computer will tend to slow down? Is it true? Why?
some good questions there because each and every cpu is different, things tend to be hit and miss. On aircooling i personally wouldn't push much over 1.45-1.5v as that those voltages you'll hit be hitting 3.6Ghz which is the limit imo for aircooling there is no warning as to how much voltage the core will take, just don't go mad! set a new FSB and boot into windows if it crashes then tweaks occur to get it stable. Alot of the old overclocking guides out there are still very useful as to the process of overclocking. As for life time, your right once overclocked for any peroid of time the life time will decrease, its not a linear regression either its expediental as the transistors age. As for time line no-body really can tell for each processor. Mines still solid after 3 years, should be fine for another 3 years if i wished, but i shall most likely upgrade before then. Higher the clock the harder the CPU is pushed, so shorter the life. A Q6600 above 3.6GHz doesn't really gain that much performance, it kinda plateaus at about 4GHz but its not much faster to risk death of the CPU in getting there.
pls answer the above questions if u can. Received only 1 reply. Also i have another question about the multipliers. I noticed that u can get the same speed with different multipliers. Ex. 9*333 = 3.0Ghz 8*375 = 3.0Ghz 7*428 = 3.0Ghz If im getting the same speed what would be the difference in them?
Actually you got 6 answers. Read them. Also, if I'm right, the latter speed, "7x428 = 3.00Ghz", I'm going out on a limb here by saying that. My thinking? It would be because the FSB is faster, so it should, theoretically shuttle the data around faster.
+1, how ever the data can only be moved once completed, so a super fast FSB may be wasted if the CPU cant complete tasks to use all that extra speed.
So with that, I would say go for the 375*8 setting, chances are it'll be a lot easier for your motherboard to reach, and is a good compromise in terms of speed.
But if you do that, surely there's a chance that it will become unstable? Less voltage going through the processor, when it's going at an increased speed, like trying to drive at 70mph in first gear >.<
I'm going to say no, the CPU will still be running at 3Ghz, and the FSB of the chip will be running higher, so if anything, I would say it would need more, but then again, I could be wrong....
no, you can go with less volts regardless of clock speed in this case, as you are dropping the multiplier. The multiplier is what causes the push upwards in voltage.
basically at some point you will require more volts the higher the clock, but what happens when you reduce the multiplier it free's up the voltage headroom. So if your pushing 1.6v on the CPU to get 3.6GHz with (9x400) but you know the memory and board can give more than 400MHz (which is a common case). Drop the multiplier to 8, which would give 3.2GHz, then push the FSB up to 450MHz, at this point you have the option to retard the supplied voltage to the CPU to about 1.55v or under. May i note at this point voltages i have mentioned are only examples, not real voltage settings to achieve such speeds, be it not too far off. Also i couldn't help notice in another thread that the OP has a B3 stepping Q6600, and they clock like a bag of well rotted S**T, and would be lucky to hit 2.8GHz on stock volts. Note they also run hotter and i have rarely seen a B3 over 3.3GHz.
pretty much, most P35 and P45 motherboards of the higher end of the budget could hit 500MHz, but this was mainly done with E8x00 series of dual cores. I've not seen a quad core with a 500MHz FSB!
I checked my BIOS and found that the FSB can go upto 500Mhz. (The max OC might be 9x500 = 4.5Ghz) But i really think its gonna be way too hard to try. Also i get another problem when i OC. I have win 7 64bit. And i have an onboard network card. When i OC my PC even a little (3.0Ghz) most of the time my internet connection stops working. I get the message "No network" near the network icon on the taskbar. No matter how much i refresh it, it wont be normal. But sometimes when i shut down and keep the PC switched off for about 10min it becomes normal again but it stops working most of the time. And when i revert to stock speeds everything works fine! Y does this happen? How can i avoid it?
two options, Even tho the bios says 500, dosen't mean you can get any where near it. i think the highest for mine is 600Mhz, but that would require boat loads of LN2 and a seriously big wallet IMO. As for your glitch, it could be that your northbridge is being starved of power, and a little voltage increase you make it stable. This is a common need during overclocking as you increase FSB speeds. Most the time people forget about the chipset, and ultimately end up toasting it as they forgot it needs some decent cooling as well!
Is there a software that i use to monitor the status, voltage & temps of CPU cores, HDD, GPU, RAM, Northbridge etc. Would be better if its free
